282 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
subject will be deduced from a comparison of the methods of orna- 
mentation exhibited in the Coptic Gospels and service-books with 
those of which we have such fine examples in our Irish Ecclesiastical 
MSS. 
“There are two other points deserving notice in this inscription 
(Togittacc). 
‘First, the inversion of letters consequent upon the separation of 
vowels composing a diphthong which appeared in the name when 
spelt in the common way. The o and i are separated in Toertracc, 
instead of being left together, as in torcrHEacH. This artifice is fre- 
quently used in Ogam as ¢. g. in curmMITIRRos = Cpuimhcherp, and 
the reason for the practice is obvious enough. As all the vowels were 
denoted by groups of similar short strokes, varying in number from 
one to five, the juxtaposition of two such groups might have the 
effect of introducing a character of ambiguous power. Thus -gerssee 
might stand for 02, or we, or eu, or 20, and so on. 
‘The Uraicept tells us that there were five varieties of the Berla 
tobaid (the language formed by selection or abstraction). Of these, 
one was the Berla Edarscartha (the language in which the chief 
letters, the vowels a, 0, u, e, 7, were separated). I suspect that this 
was not a dialect, but merely a pedantic mode of writing words so 
as to separate the vowels which entered into the diphthongs used 
in the ordinary orthography. 
‘‘There is another point to which attention may be directed in 
the discussion of this inscription. Sacerdos may be either a common 
noun or a proper name. But I think it is more probably a common 
noun. I cannot remember any instance in which an Irish ecclesiastic 
bore the name Sacerdos, but it was borne by a British presbyter who 
attended the British bishops present at the Synod of Arles in 814. 
If it were a common noun, we could see a reason for the use of a eryp- 
tic mode of writing in the record of Toictheach’s paternity. Toictheach 
was an old Irish name. We find in the Martyrology of Donegal, 
Frynrarn, son of Torcrnnacn (Jan. 2), and ToicrHeacn (a saint) 
(Nov. 16). In the Annals of the Four Masters mention is made of 
two persons of this name: one at the year 808, Abbot of Armagh— 
Colgan says of him Colitur 16 Octobris; the other at the year 895. 
As he is said to have been of Inis Aingin, he was no doubt an ecclesi- 
astic. 
“You must not suppose that I have Egypt and Copts so much 
upon the brain that I am inclined to believe that the Ogam was in- 
vented in the land of the Pharaohs. As at present advised, I give 
the credit of the invention to my own country. I found no Ogamsin 
Beypt. “cL.” 
